One of the best parts of my job is getting to hear from creators and people around the world who use Instagram every day. As much time as I’ve spent working on this app, I’m still constantly learning from the stories I hear. One theme that often comes up is the excitement and nervousness that come with putting something out into the world. People talk about taking risks, leaps of faith and overcoming whatever self-doubt they have, all to share an idea or something they made with the world.
I want Instagram to be a place where people come together over creativity. To do so, we need to evolve as creativity evolves. I want Instagram to be a place where you can overcome self-doubt, and just make it, share it, do it anyway.
That’s why we’re investing in creativity more this year than ever before, just as Instagram turns 15. From launching Edits for video creatives, to introducing new work with some of the most creative people on the planet, to new creator programs and features like Trials, we want to make it easier for anyone to take a creative chance.
Celebrating the Creative Chances That Fuel our Mission
Beginning today, you’ll see creative journeys from people like Tyler, The Creator, Rosalía, Fred Again.., Nadia Lee Cohen, Cole Bennett, Clint 419 and Slawn in a series of films and experiences about the power of a creative chance. These powerful voices embody our mission and remind us that everyone starts somewhere. We’re inspired by their stories and humbled by the small role Instagram has played in them. We’ll be doing much more with these creatives in the year ahead as we move our mission forward.
Building Products to Reduce Pressure and Supercharge Creativity
We know creative expression can feel intimidating, especially when posting something to feed. To address this directly, we’re exploring a way to let you quietly post to your profile without broadcasting it to everyone’s feeds. We’ll also make it possible to re-order the posts on your grid. We hope this added flexibility over how and where your content shows up helps you create and share without added pressure.
We’ve also made trial reels available to everyone, which lets you share a reel with non-followers at first. We’ve heard from creators that this takes the guesswork out of how content will perform, and our hope is that trial reels will give everyone greater freedom to explore their creativity in a low-pressure way. Not only are creators feeling freedom to post reels more often after, but they’re seeing results – after trying trial reels, 40% of creators started posting reels more often and of those who did, 80% saw an increase in reels reach from non-followers.*
We’re continuing to invest heavily in making Edits the best app for making great videos on your phone, no matter where you share them. You’ll see new app-defining features based on creator feedback, including the recently launched restyle editing tool, which lets you quickly change the look and feel of your videos with AI.
We know people value lightweight ways to be creative with features like Close Friends, Stories, Notes and more. So we’re partnering with Rosalía on a new font in Stories and Reels, inspired by her handwriting, to make things more fun. We’re also introducing a way to share what you’re listening to on Spotify directly in Notes, to easily connect with friends through music.
Investing in Emerging Creators and Artists
Today, we’re launching Drafts, a new initiative that will invest in emerging talent and support creators and artists at critical moments in their journey. We’ll partner with the next-generation of creative voices, like Tyrell Hampton, Young Emperors, Sailorr and Jake Fleming, to provide them with the financial support, connections, co-ideation and collaboration opportunities needed to bring their creative projects to life. We’re working to make Instagram a place where creators feel free to take more creative chances, break through whatever barrier holds them back and realize their ambitions. Because your next creative chance – big or small – could be the one that changes it all.
The willingness of people like you to make something and share it with the world is what makes Instagram work. There is so much creativity on the platform, and we’re committed to doing more to support people taking creative chances.
*Note: This is based on an internal analysis of over 400,000 creators actively producing reels before and after trying trial reels. It examined the percentage of creators who experienced an increase in reels production and unconnected reach one month after they first used trial reels to the month before adoption, and controls for confounding factors. This is designed to highlight possible performance, but performance is not guaranteed.
